Overview
We often think of pairing wine and food, but what else can wine pair with? Dr. Hoby Wedler, adjunct faculty member at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), was asked by the CIA to innovate a closing plenary lecture of their Summit for Beverage Professionals all about wine paired with music. The result was a partnership with Dreaming Tree Wines, a creative collaboration between award-winning winemaker Sean McKenzie and musician Dave Matthews, to innovate a unique afternoon of pairing wine with music from the Dave Matthews Band songbook. Dr. Ali Bouzari of Pilot R&D was also invited to participate in the discussion.
The Task
The task was to create an impactful, interesting, and creative tasting experience where the tasting notes of the wines at hand would literally be told by music. This was an exciting opportunity to pair Dreaming Tree wines with music from the Dave Matthews song book. Guests were under blindfold for most of the experience. Outcomes were striking for all guests. Perhaps the most striking outcome was achieved when the same wine was served twice but paired with a different song. The participants described the same wine completely differently depending on the music it was paired with. When art, science, and emotion intersect, amazing experiences come to life involving every sense we have at our disposal. We use eyesight to obtain 85-90% of information from our surroundings. Hoby regularly collaborates with brands like the Culinary Institute of America and The Dreaming Tree Wines to bring our four non-visual senses to the table along with eyesight to create everlasting memories and highly engaging experiences which allow guests to remember brands like The Dreaming Tree and The CIA very positively.
Outcomes
During this 90-minute custom experience, attendees were blindfolded and led by Dr. Wedler, McKenzie, and Dr. Ali Bouzari of Pilot R&D through a discussion and tasting of Dreaming Tree wines while listening to carefully curated music. The team created this experience to be emotive and memorable and to show participants how wine and music can pair elegantly, much like wine and food.
- Pairing wine with music creates an experience much like pairing wine with food where each component of the experience complements the other.
- This was the first ever wine and music pairing-specific event offered at The Culinary Institute of Senspoint’s expertise in custom experiences led to this pioneering partnership.
